In order to embrace the future, we are told, we must first let go of the past. It is perhaps that very reason, then, that regardless of past glories that have seen them develop a reputation as one of Britain’s most dynamic, exciting and hard-working bands, with acclaim and admiration greeting their every increasingly ambitious move, Young Guns are refusing to rest on their laurels with the release of fourth album Echoes.
Written by frontman Gustav Wood, guitarists Fraser and John Taylor, bassist Simon Mitchell during an eight-week spell of introspection at the tail end of 2015, Echoes was then recorded in secrecy in New Jersey at snow-covered studio of world-renowned, multi-platinum producer David Bendeth (Paramore, All Time Low, Killswitch Engage, Papa Roach). The 11-track album compiles songs that rank amongst the band’s bravest, most creative and most dynamic ever.

Frontman Gustav Wood points to the title track, Echoes, as indicative of the themes that course through the record’s veins. Namely, letting go of the past, consigning to history what needs to remain there, and opening yourself up the your future life. As Gustav sings on the “naked, exposed” Paradise: ‘I’m alive, but I’m not sure I’ve ever lived.’

“It’s not easy to face that truth,” Gustav says, “but it’s the only way. We wanted to put stuff down and run with it, and embrace spontaneity. We didn’t allow ourselves to overthink, or doubt things, or question things. We all felt we were at a crucial moment in our lives. I want to live or die by this record. It’s more than an album for me. It’s a defining moment in my life.”

And it is one, too, that sees Young Guns facing a future brighter and more full of possibility than ever before.